We Will Be Back

IPSC, Cyprus, June 5, 2010)

 Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the peaceful outcome to the operation when they seized our ship in international waters in direct violation of maritime law. Through his speech writer, he said:
 
"We saw today the difference between a ship of peace activists, with whom we don't agree but respect their right to a different opinion from ours, and between a ship of hate organised by violent Turkish terror extremists,"
 
So we d like to remind Mr. Netanyahu that the only hate evidenced on board all six boats on Monday morning came from the Israeli attackers. Israeli soldiers violently boarded the entire flotilla, beating, shooting and hooding passengers as though they were in Abu Ghraib
 
"People had been shot in the arms, legs, in the head - everywhere. We had so many injured. It was a bloodbath," said Laura Stuart on board the Marmara, a British housewife and resue worker.
 
She described frantic attempts to treat the injured in a makeshift sick room on the ship, and failed attempts to resuscitate some of the dead.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/s/L1BG
 
Therefore, we are putting Mr. Netanyahu on notice that we are returning in the next couple of months with another flotilla, that his actions and the actions of his soldiers have energized thousands of people who have stepped forward with offers to help and participate on the next voyage. We d also like to remind Mr. Netanyahu that seizing our ship, the Rachel Corrie, is yet another violent act from a long series of violent acts against civilians that Israel has committed this week.
 
Contact:

Greta Berlin 00 357 99 18 72 75

MV Rachel Corrie prisoners to arrive home tomorrow

IPSC, Sun June 6th, 2010, 1.45pm

The Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) has just received word that the five Irish prisoners from the MV Rachel Corrie, which was hijacked yesterday by Israeli forces, are due to arrive in Dublin airport at 11.20am tomorrow morning. There will be a welcoming committee to meet them and press conference to follow at 3pm in The Central Hotel, Exchequer Street, Dulin 2. Included among the five returning are Mairead Maguire, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Ireland and Denis Halliday, former UN Assistant Secretary General, Ireland
 
Freda Hughes of the IPSC said, " We are relieved that the prisoners from the MV Rachel Corrie, but we must remember that they were illegally kidnapped and taken against their will to Israel."
 
The boarding by Israeli forces is in defiance of a direct call from the Irish Government, which had formally requested Israel allow the ship to reach Gaza. On 1 June, the Irish parliament also passed an all-party motion condemning Israel's use of military force against civilian aid ships, and demanding "an end to the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza."
 
The 1200-ton cargo ship was purchased through a special fund set up by former Malaysian Prime Minister and Perdana Global Peace Organisation
(PGPO) chairman Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad and is owned by The Free Gaza Movement. Its cargo included hundreds of tons of medical equipment and cement, as well as 20 tons of paper from the people of Norway, donated to UN-run schools in Gaza.

  IOF Admits It Doctored the Audio Tapes

IPSC, Cyprus, June 6, 2010

The IOF admitted today in a press release that it doctored audio footage from its exchanges with the Gaza flotilla in order to paint the flotilla passengers as anti-Semites.
 
However, their comments no more sense with the explanation:  This transmission had originally cited the Mavi Marmara ship as being the source of these remarks, however, due to an open channel, the specific ship or ships in the  Freedom Flotilla  responding to the Israeli Navy could not be identified.
 
During radio transmissions between Israeli Navy and the ships of the  Free Gaza  Flotilla on 31 May 2010, the Israeli Navy ship attempts to make contact with the  Defne Y  on channel 16. Other ships from the flotilla respond on the channel, without identifying themselves. At some point during the radio exchange the Israeli Navy is told by one of the ships to  shut up, go back to Auschwitz  (2:05) and  don t forget 9-11. (5:42). 
 
According to our Captain of Challenger 1, Denis Healey, a man with 25 years of experience on the sea, there would be no way that anyone could communicate with each other without the entire fleet hearing the exchange.
 There was no exchange like this by anyone on any boat during the entire time I was piloting the boat,  said Denis.
 
Huwaida Arraf, the woman you hear on the radio, concurred.  The open channel is always the open channel, and everyone knows who is on the radio. 
 
All radio transmissions on the sea are heard by all captains. Once again, Israel is caught in a lie trying to defned itself for the murder and mayhem it committed the morning of May 31, 2010.
 
Contact:

Greta Berlin 00 357 99 18 72 75 Audrey Bomse 00 357 96 48 98 05 Mary Hughes 00 357 96 38 38 09

Contact:
 
IPSC Office: 01 6770253
Freda Hughes (IPSC): 086 1260359
John Dorman (IPSC): 087 2208560
Martin Quigley (IPSC): 087 9623624
Kevin Squires (IPSC): 087 7413580
Mark McDonnell (IPSC): 086 841 6297